The price of coal

Its funny looking back at my childhood, which I seem to be doing a lot recently.  I recall things I experienced like remembering waking up in the morning and having to get dressed under the covers because of the cold.  Power cuts causing us to find those little white candles and melting them on to saucers and placing them into safe alcoves.  Spam fritters for tea.  Wearing an extra jumper because it was too early to put the heating on.  repairing heals on shoes and your dad polishing the shoes with shoe polish that came in a round tin and brushes.  Putting your hand down the back of the couch and finding loose change.  Buying four chews for a penny.  That was about 35 years ago, except for the penny sweets it almost seems in this troubling time that things have come full circle.  The price of living has become so expensive that my family question when we put the heating on.  There are still power cuts, whether its because the electricity company are on strike or due to government cut backs there are not enough people to do the job.  My little white candles are replaced by jumbo packs of night lights and I repaired a pair of boots a while back that under other circumstances would have thrown and replaced.  The couch has now been replaced by bottoms of handbags, jacket pockets and tins of change.  The difference back then was we had never known anything different, where as now with how technology has changed us and our lives its seems strange that we are returning to old ways to survive.  The good things are lighting log fires and snugly blankets.  Spending time with family and friends and just accepting things for what they are, changing times.  And it is at times like this that I get my most inspiration from.  When things are tough you rise above it.  Who ever is reading this, take a minute to think about where you are in your life and if you are not content rise above it and make a difference even if its something small.